29 April, 2020
Dried Starter Diary: Day 2
Day two is maybe the most boring day. You check your starter every 12 hours, and see if anything is happening. Chances are, you first check will just be looking at some very wet flour which still smells like flour, and isn’t doing anything at all. That is normal and OK. It is the 24 hour check where things can get interesting. Anyhow, here is the video. It’s very short:
For anyone who doesn’t want to (or can’t) watch the video, it’s just step 5 from our Sourdough Starter Care & Feeding page. That’s it. Just step 5:
- Wait. If you don’t see any activity in 24hrs, add another 25ml of water, and give it a vigorous stir.
- Yes. That’s it.
With any luck, like the starter in this video, it will smell a little like yogurt (really not quite like yogurt, but it’s the closest smell I can think of to give you the general idea), and it will have grown a little in the jar. If so, just leave it alone for another 12 hours.
If it’s like the starter in the Starting Your Alaskan Sourdough Starter in under a minute video, and it doesn’t appear to be doing anything after 24 hours, add a couple tablespoons of water, and stir that in vigorously to loosen up the flour paste. Maybe that makes it easier for the yeasts to move around? At any rate, my first test packet woke right up after that.
On Day 3, we’ll feed the starter for the first time! I have yet to test a packet that didn’t wake up by day three, so I’m going on the assumption we can all expect that kind of turnaround time.
